Hey everyone, Xander here. Another project another blog post. For this project we learned about exponent laws and get better at using with them in equations, then use our new learning to make a board game to present to ours and Mr. Harris’s class which I unfortunately had to miss. We started by making a mind map to show what thoughts we already had about
exponents and what we think we already knew. I found that there were only a few questions I had about exponents because I didn’t know much about them at the beginning of the project. 
We were then put into partners to start the project. At the Start of the project we started
playing around with different ways to use simple math in a simple game using some dice which got a little bit tricky near the end. This gave us some ideas of what we were going to try to make in this project. We also started working on some practice questions and started to learn each exponent law. We started to make ideas on how our board game would work and what it would be about. It ended up being a candy land type of game which a lot of people ended up doing, but each in our own way. We decided on that candy land game with an exponent style. We then started to put our best ideas together and make some simple rules for the game. We made multiple drafts and were constantly changing important parts of the rules in order to make it easy for players to understand and read.
Then we started to work on our physical game pieces and game board. Patrick spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to print a 10 x 10 row board that is about 22 x 30 inches. He figured that it seemed that the best option was to divide each part of the board onto a separate piece of paper, so the board was divided between 6 pieces of paper. We then got a large cardboard square and stuck the paper on as best we could then write each symbol on the spaces. After the board was done I started to draw the cards that we were going to use for our game they look like this.(up above)
After we drew the cards Patrick printed them at home because he has a coloured printed which is great. We were supposed to have three decks of cards, including of normal deck of cards to be used as number cards. I was supposed to being them in but couldn’t because I was away, so I hope Patrick borrowed from somebody.
Core Competencies:
Reasoning and analyzing: I think that we made a good points system and had a reason for them other that just some points, for example we used them also as an in game currency. I also think that we used logic to create a game that was balanced and fair for the players. The only negative feedback given was that we should have hand made the number cards.
Communicating and representing: We made a clear set of instructions that shows exactly how to play the game that included 4 exponent laws as well as examples of game situations and reference images. I think that our game showed a good understanding of exponent laws and the math involved which was the base of this game and the project.
Applying and innovating: I worked well with my partner and we used each others ideas to create the best product we could have in the time that we had. I think that we both contributed somewhat equally and used our time and were able to make a pretty good game in the that was able to be presented on game day by Patrick. Overall I think that this was a fun project and involved a lot of thinking and creative skills to complete. This was very fun using math in a fun way, and especially exponents because I haven’t used those for a while.
Thanks y’all for reading my blog, and soon I hope that you can try out our game if we keep it and meet up sometime. Have a good one.